Interface the PHOJET Physics Generator Program to ATHENA
Project Description
PHOJET is a Monte Carlo physics generator program that simulates
hadron-hadron, photon-hadron and photon-photon collisions. It will be used in ATLAS to
study proton-proton collisions, although it can also simulate photon-photon interactions in heavy-ion collisions.
PHOJET provides an alternative to PYTHIA and JIMMY for the study of processes that cannot be
calculated with perturbative QCD, such as
minimum bias events (events with high cross section and low transverse momentum)
and the underlying event activity in events with a high transverse momentum parton-parton collision.
PYTHIA and JIMMY rely on multiple parton-parton interactions to describe the non-perturbative phenomena,
while PHOJET uses the Dual Parton Model.
This project consists of interfacing the PHOJET Monte Carlo program to the
ATHENA framework that is used for ATLAS software. Once interfaced, some initial validation
of the PHOJET program will be performed
Tasks
Interfacing PHOJET to ATHENA
The PHOJET program is written in FORTRAN 77, while ATHENA uses C++ and PYTHON.
However, PYTHIA is also written in FORTRAN and therefore the PYTHIA_I interface
to ATHENA can be used as a model for the PHOJET interface. PHOJET has not been modified
in ten years, and some modifications to the program may be necessary to get it to run
without crashing at the LHC center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV. Although
PHOJET will first be used in ATLAS as a standalone Monte Carlo physics generator, the
ATHENA interface should be designed so that PHOJET can also be used in conjunction with other parton-parton generators
such as ALPGEN.
Validation of PHOJET
What you will learn
Full description of proton-proton collisions: total cross-section, minimum bias events, hard parton-parton scattering and the underlying event.
Details of Monte Carlo event generators.
Programming in C++ and PYTHON, and interfacing to legacy FORTRAN software
Required Knowledge
Object oriented programming experience in C++ (preferred) or JAVA. Some previous exposure to particle physics is helpful, but not required.
Contacts
Tim Barklow
Last modified: Fr Sep 14 15:16:47 PDT 2007